Many
ants keep as cows the small green plant-lice on the rose-bushes. These
tiny green cows fill themselves full of a sweet juice which they make
from the plant-leaf. The little people like the sweet juice and have
found out that they can get it by stroking the cows. So they keep herds
of fat cattle and often mount guard round the branch or tree where their
cows are feeding.
Ants have a keen sense of smell and a wonderful way of talking to each
other by touching their antennae. They must have a complete set of
signals, for they are able to carry on a long conversation.
How do we know so much about them? Wise men have spent years in studying
their ways. There was a blind Swiss naturalist, named Huber, who, with
the aid of his servant, was able to learn more of ants and their doings
than any one had dreamed of before. It was Huber who found out that ants
go to war and make slaves. In England another famous observer noticed
that ants knew and welcomed each other after ten and twelve months of
separation.
It would be interesting to know what the ants think of us, who in some
ways are no wiser than themselves. How blundering and clumsy we must
seem when with careless feet we crush millions of the innocent dwellers
in their underground cities! Surely we might try not to disturb the
little people in the wonderful homes they have made.
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